NEWS Orientation week parties that end up with students unconscious with alcohol poisoning is not a harmless prank, but part of a culture that we must dare to discuss. This is according to American sociologist Michael Kimmel, one of the world's most acclaimed researchers on masculinity. On Thursday 22 October, Kimmel makes a special visit to Umeå University and will hold two open lectures.
In his new book, Guyland, Kimmel has interviewed hundreds of young males at colleges and universities in the United States, between the ages of 16 and 26. The young men were from secure middle-class families, often excelled in athletics and were popular in school. The interviews also made it evident that these young men constitute a very distinct own culture. It is a culture in which men are expected to consume alcohol, fight, have many sexual conquests, and the worst thing to be called is gay. The most important thing is to show off their manhood, even if it results in breaking the law or humiliating and degrading others. Similar observations of “guy cultures” have been made throughout Europe and Kimmel is now challenging the world to dare to take a closer look at this phenomenon. He means that it’s time to stop saying “boys will be boys” and hopes that that these young males can grow up to become responsible men.
WELCOME TO A PRESS CONFERENCE WITH MICHAEL KIMMEL
Thursday 22 October at 2:00 pm
Betula Lecture Hall, Medical Library, Umeå University
MEN AND HEALTH: WHAT YOUNG MEN SAY and don’t say ABOUT THEIR LIVES AS GUYSThursday 22 October at 3:15 pm
Betula Lecture Hall, Medical Library, Umeå University
"GLOBALIZATION AND ITS MAL(E) CONTENTS: Masculinity and the Extreme Right in the United States and Sweden"
Thursday 22 October at 10:15 am, Lecture Hall 205, Social Sciences Building, Umeå University
For more information or questions, contact:Kerstin Edin, Research AssistantDepartment of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå UniversityPhone: +46 (0)90 - 785 13 33
E-mail: kerstin.edin@epiph.umu.se
Michael Kimmel, born in 1951, is a Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University in New York. His is a spokesperson for the American pro-feminist men’s organisation NOMAS (The National Organization for Men against Sexism). He is a world renowned researcher in the field of men and masculinity, and his books include Manhood in America: A Cultural History (1996), which is hailed as the definitive work on the subject. Kimmel has prior experience with Sweden, in an interview study where he has compared male right-wing extremists (skinheads, neo-Nazis, and other white supremacists) from Sweden and the United States. In this study, one of the subjects he interviewed was Jackie Arklöf, a Swedish ex-neo-Nazi who in 1999 murdered two police officers during a botched robbery in 1999.
Read more about Michael Kimmel at: http://www.concertideas.com/mk/
Read more about his new book, Guyland, at: http://www.guyland.net/
The lectures are arranged by the Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS) with sponsoring from the Umeå Centre of Global Health Research (UCGHR).
Photo: courtesy of Michael Kimmel